Grim Reaper
by iamnotlordvoldemort
Summary: It took me a while, but I'd finally found an even bigger task than saving the world.
1. Chapter 1

It wasn't the trendiest method of interstellar travel but at least it didn't run the risk of me blowing up the spaceship. I put on my apron and motioned to the Wardens beside me to come along. While stable Ways had started to develop between the most established colony worlds, traveling through the part of the Nevernever that separated solar systems meant crossing through inhuman abyss and risking loosing both mind and soul in addition to body. Luckily, I had a backdoor.

We stepped into the back of the pizza shop to the comforting smell of melted cheese and burnt pepperoni. At least a few things about the world I grew up in hadn't changed. That was about the extent of them though, and while I wasn't ready to say the world had left me behind, it was probably only because I'd been too busy to stop and check.

As soon as my feet touched the ground in the shop, I became instantly aware of each and every pizza currently in the oven, the number of pepperoni in the freezer, and even the heartbeat of every living person in the store. It's called an Intellectus, and in the right circumstances it is a very powerful tool. You can ask what it says about me that I have this primordial connection with pizza shops. The answer isn't all that enlightening. I'd just been young and naïve, and I'd gotten very carried away giving pizza to a particular fairy. One hundred and eighty years later, the mantle of Za Lord is beginning to manifest itself. I'll admit, I'm pretty pleased to be the king of the fairy court of pizza. What can I say? I'm a youthful 217.

Carrying the mantle of a Wild Fairy Court, even one that for the most part was made up of gluttonous and crazy pixies, turned out to be very useful. While Za Lord Mantle didn't super charge my magic with ice or fire, it also didn't try to change my personality. It had developed right along side me all these years after all. I mostly stayed out of Supreme Regent General Toot's way in the day to day affairs of the court. The little fellow had grown up to eight feet before he'd been satisfied. Personally, I think he just wanted to be taller then me. But from time to time, the magic of the court could be very useful to me. Days like today.

Pizza was my Domain. With a capital D. That meant that I could make the definitively best deep dish on earth. But more importantly, it meant I had a Way through the Court's slice of the Nevernever from any pizza shop to any other pizza shop. In the Galaxy… I did, however, have to put on my best apron and Italian chef's hat to do it. Those sorts of things were important, even if they were just props. Mantles are nothing more than masks after all. I opened a closet door in the back of the shop, and we stepped into the Nevernever.

We exited much less glamorously. I stepped out first and landed directly in a trash dumpster. The young Wardens clambered down from what appeared now to be the back window frame of the shop.

"Are you ok sir?" Warden Rutkowski asked?

I grumbled to myself and shooed the Polish girl's hand away, angry that the practically adolescent Wardens didn't have the decency to even laugh at me when I made a fool of myself. Technically, they were here to protect and support me. Ha! I'd have tried harder to find some veterans, but they tended to be even more uptight and serious then the rest of the bunch. Try as I might, I couldn't stop them from staring at me like I was some sort of god damn messiah or something, and frankly the pomp and circumstance just pissed me off. You can take the wizard out of the Blue Beetle, but you can't take the Blue Beetle out of the wizard. I just hadn't been made for a purple stole.

We were there to investigate powerful black magic. Something about Eden Prime was causing the practitioners amongst the colonists to go crazy, and the paranet had blown up with reports of powerful fey crossing over from the Nevernever. The Council had very little presence outside of Earth, but that was beginning to change as more and more practitioners were being born amongst Earth's colonies. Their presence in turn appeared to catalyze the development of new intelligent supernatural entities on these worlds as well. New monsters meant unknown monsters, and encounters with the unknown tended to turn out very badly for mortal wizards.

I stuffed my apron back in my backpack with as much dignity as I could muster, well aware of the flour stains on my shirt and pants. I knew I had already developed a reputation amongst the younger council members as a cantankerous old slob, but at least I didn't have a dreadnaught stuck up my ass like some of the other senior members. Members who should have been helping me investigate new interstellar evil as supposed to sitting underground in the middle of nowhere. They'd left me playing Obi-wan Kenobi to their Yoda with a whole bunch of young Wardens, and I was none too happy about it.

Technically it hadn't been as much of a pizza shop as a military mess unit. A long steel container with some windows and doors, stuck to a whole bunch of neighboring units. The kind of temporary building that dominate alliance colonies. We didn't want to get caught wondering around this sort of place dressed in robes and carrying carved walking sticks, and I quickly ushered the Wardens with me away from the outpost.

Having safely moved into the near by greenery, I took a second to assess our surroundings. Eden Prime's appearance to the naked eye was much like Earth's, complete with trees, blue sky, grass, and familiar seeming wildlife, but as I opened my Sight, I was assaulted with utter foreignness of the land around me. Where grass on earth would have shown both with the verdant green of spring, and the crisp frost of January, Eden Prime's appeared to my eye as grotesque mockeries, like an image drawn in black and white with a coloration I had not been permitted to see. Instead of clear ley lines and the obvious ebb and flow of magical potential, I saw seemingly random flashes of energy, like lightning, shooting in every direction. But most of all, I saw Death.

It was a devastation the likes of which I had never seen. I've waded through the untold millions of bones that lie against the Outer Gate, and yet on Eden Prime I found myself drowning. Everywhere I looked, the corpses dominated the landscape, rotting and forgotten to time. These had been an intelligent people. They had each and everyone been violently exterminated. And it had all happened at once.

I felt myself wretch out a mixture of coffee and donuts as I snapped my Eye shut. God, would I never learn. So fucking stupid.

It took me almost a half hour to answer the frantic questioning and prodding from the Wardens around me. Thankfully none of them were stupid enough to try to take a look at what I had seen. It might well have killed them. Wizard's minds get tougher as we age, and I could cope with a lot more kicking around then I used to be able to. At this point I'd seen enough shit that thinking about an old Naagloshii or something barely caused me to hiccup. But today had been different. Everything I'd seen was new, and processing it all would have been challenging enough without the tragedy that soaked the ground around us. But most difficult of all was living with the unforgettable fact that ours was a universe where a billion beings could be wiped out in an instant without any remorse. It had Happened. And thus it could happen again.

When you reach an impasse in life, there are only really two choices. Sit down, or make yourself fit through. Whenever you see something with the Sight, you've got to be able to accept that it is now part of you or you can't keep going. I got up. I had family still, and they probably wouldn't forgive me for dying out of stubbornness and self pity.

"Wizard Dresden? Will you require assistance getting back to Edinburgh?" One of the older Wardens said, making eye contact with me as I sat up.

"No. I'll survive." I ground out. "I can tell you one thing though. We are in the right goddamn place, and we won't be going back to Scotland until we know what the hell is going on."

XXXXX

We spent the next several hours marching awkwardly around the Eden Prime dwellings and farmland that surrounded the military outpost and spaceport. It was clear now that the heavy stain of genocide that marked the planet had been responsible for the reports of incurable nightmares, fell creatures exiting the Nevernever, and other nasty things. The question now was how they were gaining such a tactile foothold. Some physical construct that had been on Eden Prime when this all occurred must still exist, and whatever it was had turned into a sort of conduit for all the terror and fear of its people's final moments.

I knew little of the the history of Eden Prime. You'd be surprised how hard it is to keep up with world developments when you reach 200. It isn't even really because you get old as much as because people around you expect you to act old. Like a sort of reverse baby talk. Instead of using real words, young people always assume I won't know what an omni-tool is or whatever and start calling it things like "the orange arm-computer". I mean for god's sake! If I don't screw up, I'm going to be fumbling around for another century or two. Even for an old dog, that is plenty of time to be learning new tricks.

Thankfully Warden Thomson was both reliably up to date on world—make that interstellar—events, and was normally relatively good about giving me information in a helpful rather than childish sort of way. Unlike most Wizards of my time, he'd actually completed a rigorous education in the mundane world as well and worked at a technology firm when he wasn't carrying a sword and wearing a cape. I'm told many of his colleagues have similar hobbies, but I haven't managed to make it to any sci-fi conventions in a while. Always a good time to show up to those sorts of things in Council robes and make a few things levitate.

I'd explained to the rest of the group the gist of what I'd seen, and we were all working to figure out what it all meant.

"—so what this actually suggests is that the Prothean Empire was destroyed by a previously unknown threat!"

Well, Thomson was figuring it out while the rest of us listened and tried to node our heads at the right times.

"Remind me again who the Protheans were?" I asked.

"The Protheans are the ones who built the Citadel and Mass Relays. Lived fifty thousand years ago, but disappeared mysteriously." Thomson replied. I detected a hint of eye rolling.

"Okay, so we already knew they disappeared? So why is it so surprising to find that something killed them?"

"I mean, the issue really comes down to technology. If the Protheans could build literally all the tech we use today, a sophisticated galactic civilization, and still become extinct, were does that leave us? We haven't even got around to building relays or anything."

"And more importantly, what happened to whoever or whatever did the killing." I finished.

"Exactly."

Shit. Well at least being on the Council for a while gets you comfortable dealing with existential threats. And as far as apocalypses going, the missing and mysterious kind were at least a slight improvement on clear and present danger.

Warden Laberine led the way, using a mix of Thaumaturgy and Ectomancy to give us some semblance of direction. We obviously couldn't use the Sight again, and had little enough to go on, but a Wizard truly sensitive to the malicious emotions spilling out of the conduit might have a decent chance of determining a direction to the flow. I've gotten a lot better at the more delicate stuff, but I still wasn't close to the best in the group when it came to that sort of thing.

We all felt it when the dreadnaught arrived. Even before the giant ship broke through the clouds, a pall fell across the psychic landscape, and Laberine fell to the ground twitching as she'd had her senses fully open while leading the search. It was an ancient presence, with no small amount of power in the Nevernever, and from the moment we sensed it, it began to assault our minds.

We rallied ourselves as smaller drop ships began to pour out and spread across the settlement. This was not the kind of battle Wizards were meant for. We'd decide several years back that the Laws of Magic extended to all the sentient races encountered so far, and we'd be hard pressed to go head to head with any military forces with just swords and shields.

But there weren't a lot of options. Opening a path to the Nevernever would be insane after what I'd seen. If we wanted to retreat, it would need to be near the pizza oven of the military canteen. And as the ships seemed to be deploying all around us, that was unlikely to be much help.

I cast a veil over us as the drop ships began to approach. They were purple things, strangely organic looking, and covered with arms that head to my eye no apparent purpose. Then the shock troopers started jumping directly out of the hovering craft, and I almost laughed right then and there. Two arms, two legs and what looked like a lightbulb for a head! I mean, at least the superbattle droids looked intimidating. Or droidika. This was like an Episode I battle droid. The sad folding-chairs that were always saying "Roger, Roger".

"Geth. Non-organic." Thomson confirmed with a whisper.

That was all I needed to hear. The gloves were off.

The group before us was only about platoon strength, and I signaled to the Wardens that I'd handle the first strike. Get them before they spread out and what not. Reaching up into the strange feeling wind of Eden Prime, I yanked the Geth drop ship right down on top of them.

"Ventas Servitas!"

The ship exploded in a mix of normal fire, and the blue light I'd come to associate with element zero and Mass Effect cores. I suppressed a whoop of joy. Senior Council members were not supposed to whoop and I supposed I could at least make that much of an effort to conform.

My victory was short lived. I was glad I hadn't celebrated it prematurely. No sooner had the drop ship exploded then every drop ship still in the air turned and began heading straight for us. Shit shit shit!

"Harry, the Geth can communicate with each other mentally!" Thomson shouted as the drop ships began to open fire on our position.

Bullets I can deal with at this point. Even the new fancy kind that travels at some fraction of the speed of light or what not. But heavy artillery fire was another story. I'd have to give it a try though. That was a lot of energy, and the rest of the squad was just not going to be able to handle it. I threw up my strongest shield and grunted under the strain as cannon shots and missiles began to cross the distance from the nearest ship.

Holding a free shield like that was going to be nearly impossible in the long term. I doubled my resolve, picturing a circle clearly in my mind and let my magic flow out of my right hand while I kept up the shield with my left. I felt the shield buckle and fall as fire raced outwards and burned a perfect circle around our perimeter. One of the Wardens closed it just in time and I quickly reinforced the ward as the fire doubled with more approaching ships. We'd bought ourselves time, but we'd also trapped ourselves in.

I remembered the old Gatekeeper and the Merlin once holding off an army of Vampires with a ward, and I was fairly certain I could mimic the feat at least with gunfire, but the issue was the escape plan. For that to work, we'd need to hold the ward long enough to create an artificial Way in the Nevernever. Trouble was I was likely the only one who could do either job. And no one had ever tried to force a Way between the worlds before.

"What's the plan sir?" Rutkowski asked, ashen faced.

"Anyone have any escape potion?" I said looking around.

That seemed to ruin the mood and result in a lot of grim faces. I suppose they'd all been looking to me to have something flashy up my sleeve. And this tactical error was looking to be my fault as well. Fuck.

Veils might be worth a shot. If we got one up that was good enough, we might be able to just walk out of the circle without them noticing. But that was the trouble with machines. They'd notice every blade of grass as it was pressed down, every spectrum of light, every convective vortex of air, every subtle heart beat. And while we were concentrating on the veil, we'd be vulnerable to enemy fire.

I thought about summoning someone from the Nevernever. I wasn't above calling in debts in a time like this, but given the situation on Eden Prime, it didn't seem wise. I wasn't sure how strong any of my allies would be here either, so far from their seats of Power. Given enough time, I'm sure the Courts would gain a foothold on all the new human planets, but it had only been decades at this point.

"Alright, this is how it is going to go." I said finally, as ground troops began to close in. "Everyone get your best shot ready, and pick targets. We get rid of all the hostiles close by. Then we try our luck with veils and hope that they can't spot us from a distance."

I let my staff fall into my right hand, continuing to hold the ward on the circle with my left. Checking that everyone was ready, I let the shield fall, and gave them hell.

Lightning fell from the cloudless sky as jets of fire flew by. Earthen hands reached out of the ground smashing several enemy units together. Wind raced outwards from my staff, over the heads of the Wardens, bending trees and knocking both Geth units and ships back. I took a second to catch my breath. The padawans had done well.

Laberine finished off a couple stragglers with another round of lightning, and Rutkowski knocked off some limbs with a few blasts of force. We had an opening, and I gesture frantically for everyone to throw up their veil and start moving to the settlement.

Geth reinforcements arrived just as we made it out of the circle of magical and mechanical devastation and into the tree line. We moved with little awareness of one another, each concentrating on maintaining our best possible veil, and each invisible to one another.

The Geth heads turned, searching and fanning out. If it wasn't so frightening, it would be impressive how quickly they adapted. Then one of the heads stopped moving. Fifty or so flashlights joined it, turning to a point slightly away from my position.

Laberine's head exploded a second later, showering the area with blood and brains. The shock jolted all of us, and Rutkowski's veil faltered for a second. That was all it took. The Geth opened fire on her position. Thankfully she was smart enough to abandon the veil the second it faltered and throw up her best shield. Shit. There was no way she could get back under the veil at this point, and no way she could maintain a shield indefinitely.

I decided to go for a distraction strategy and hope the green Wardens were smart enough to keep moving to the settlement. I let my veil drop and my staff fall to a horizontal position. Exactly half the Geth troops turned their weapons on me as the others continued to fire on Rutkowski's shield. But their accelerated slivers of metal stopped inches away from me as my habitual enchantments kicked in. I concentrated my focus and let loose.

White hot fire poured out of my staff like the end of a rocket during take off. Literally. It raced outwards, engulfing the forest and blocking both Rutkowski and I from view. Then, ending the deluge, I brought my focus to bear on the wall of flames that was now before us. Driven by an unnatural wind, it began rolling towards the Geth ground troops with the pace of a fast jogger. Flashy and unrefined was my specialty after all. This was going to leave me tapped, but hopefully it would also provide enough of a distraction for Rutkowski to safely recover her veil.

The first of the Geth ground troops were engulfed moments later, and even the gunships seemed to pause to assess the situation. I kept up the flames, fuelling them with the ample hatred and emotion that oozed out of the ground around us. Sweat dripping down my brow, I forced the fire to spread in such away as to partially engulf the ground forces that had been moving towards us. Satisfied that the fire would continue naturally now for at least a few minutes, I let my arm sag down and began trying to rebuild enough focus to summon a strong veil. That had been the issue with this strategy. Veils were still difficult enough for me that I liked to perform them when I was at my best, not after expending much of my strength with shock and awe sorts of magic.

I flickered out of sight, and broke in to as much of a jog as my old legs could handle. Being tall isn't really an issue until you get to be closer to my age. It is great when you are young, intimidating and all that, but at 200+ it just extenuates all the joint problems and back-hunching you might otherwise experience.

After a long trek through the undeveloped landscape, I approached what appeared to be the far end of the spaceport. And a lot of gunfire. Coming to a ledge overlooking the site, I saw a squad of alliance marines hunkered down on a walkway behind supply crates with a Geth squad approaching. Excavating equipment was scattered around, and on the main platform, a glowing pillar sat isolated. I didn't need to use my Sight to see that it was the Conduit for the emotion seeping out of the Nevernever. Whatever it was, it was made by the Protheans. I was sure of it. And they had made it with the purpose of preserving the memory of their death. No wonder the colony had gone nuts when it had been pulled out of the ground.

I was preparing myself to join the fray when a staggering blow to the head sent me reeling. Before I could recover enough to respond, a blue skeletal creature landed on top of me, battering me and forcing me to the ground. It looked human—it was human! —but glowing and mechanical. Grotesque. And I felt in it an echo of the malevolence I had seen earlier. My eyes met the mechanically augmented ones before me, and I felt myself drawn into a soul gaze I desperately wanted to avoid.

I was floating in the dark. There were stars, but they were so very far away. It was unimaginably cold. Suddenly my eyes made out in the dim light a figure arrayed before me. A man, the man whose body this had been, crucified and rigid. Tubes sticking out of his mouth and eyes, his faced paralyzed in a silent scream. It was his soul that oozed out of the mechanical piping and flowed out and behind me. I turned my head and wished I hadn't. A towering colossus floated ominously. Miles long and shaped like a cuttlefish. It was seeing me as I saw it, and its glowing red eyes met mine.

"DRESDEN" It echoed in a mechanical base timbre that at once sounded like the undertones of a nightclub and the the dying breadth of an earthquake.

Here, in the mind, it's body was made of many millions of corpses, pulsating with eldritch energy with every syllable. And it was Old. I saw it burning civilizations time and time again, breaking and rebuilding. Always harvesting. Always waiting.

But most striking of all, it was mortal. It had been built. It had been created. Unlike the unravelling gaze of Mother Winter, or even the passionate hate of one of the Fallen, this thing was True Evil. Because evil is really about breaking with one's nature. Winter couldn't be evil. Cold was meant to be exactly as it was. Unforgiving, and draining. Even the Fallen which were so very close to pure evil were not quite there. They were static. They'd been created as they were, without free will, and bore no more responsibility than any force of nature did. They could bring about true evil in the mortals that possessed them, but not in and of themselves. But the creature before me was different. It was as if someone had collected the worst parts of millions of sinners and stitched them together. It was intelligent. It was made of those who had free will, by one who had free will, and it itself had free will, but had Chosen to enact some eternal campaign of hatred against the universe.

"THE CYCLE WILL CONTINUE" It rumbled, and I felt myself shaking with it.

And then it was over, and I was back to having my nose smashed by the abomination before me. My mind had taken a serious beating today, but I recovered faster this time, motivated by the serious peril of being bludgeoned to death. A lance of energy shot from my hand, gutting the body on top of me. I'd worry about whether it still constituted a human later.

Time to end things. I'd pulled this trick before, when I was much younger and not half as handsome. Ha ha. The tormented and cheated souls beneath me were much deeper, but also more plentiful and angered. I reached out to them, using the near by artifact as a focus, telling them that their enemy had returned. That their time had come. Even with the energy that lay beneath the soil and the artifact to aid me, I wasn't strong enough to summon all of them. But it was enough. Angered spirits rose from the ground, lancing down the Geth troops with beams of fired ectoplasm. In the distance, they swarmed around the dreadnaught, causing massive red discharges as its shields met their onslaught. And then just as easily as it had landed, it silently lifted off the ground, and soon disappeared from sight.

I ambled down the slope of the hill to the main platform of the spaceport, wincing with every step. The squad of alliance marines stood in shock at their strange good fortune—or perhaps the extra tall senior citizen wearing a purple scarf and leaning on an ominously carved staff. They'd never seen anything like the translucent army that had appeared out of thin air I'm sure, and if they were doubting what had happened, then the ectoplasmic goo that coated the space port was likely giving them pause.

You could tell they were good people though when they rushed to help the old man in duress, forgetting the reality-questioning events that had just taken place.

"Sir, are you okay?" The lead soldier asked through a microphoned voice as they rushed forward.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I said waving them off. "You here for the artifact?" Not the reply they'd expected by the looks of it.

"What do you know about the beacon?" The lead soldier responded with curiosity, taking off his helmet now that he was satisfied the threats had been neutralized. It's the little things like that that matter, and call me old fashioned, but I like looking the people I'm talking with in the eyes. Well, at least an inch or so above the eye. I wasn't looking for another soul gaze right now.

I debated what to say. The man before me looked to be about thirty perhaps. A veteran. A few scars, but a young face. I couldn't exactly tell him what was really going on—that it was the death mask of a murdered civilization—but I was sure of one thing. The artifact was serious trouble. With a capital T that rhymes with P and all that.

"I know it is dangerous," I said finally. "And I know that it records the end of the Prothean civilization."

"What would the Geth want with a Prothean artifact" he muttered to himself and squadmates. "My name is Commander Shepard. I'm an alliance marine stationed on the SSV Normandy. We have orders to recover the artifact for further study. I appreciate the warning and we'll be sure to take precautions. If you don't mind, can we talk further once the artifact is secured?"

I nodded and took a step back. Removing it actually might work pretty well. The psychic damage it had caused on the colony hadn't been as much the artifact itself as the memory it uncorked. If taken off planet, it might solve my problem and give the alliance a chance to learn the same chilling facts that I just had.

Shepard was approaching the beacon when suddenly it glowed with a green flowing nimbus that lifted him off the ground splayed him out spread eagle in mid air, screaming at the top of his lungs. To my slightly augmented vision, I could see a small fissure, an opening in the Nevernever, along the length of the pillar. A rough black shape flew out of it, enter the Commander as he was suspended in mid air.

I moved to help the commander, but another creature from the Nevernever seemed to take advantage of the opportunity to step through. What exited was probably best described as some sort of crab like figure about the size of a pony. Or perhaps a giant insect. I couldn't decide. Whatever it was, it was definitely not any creature of the Nevernever that had a connection with Earth and humanity. In fact, its head bore some resemblance to the corpses I had seen with my Sight. I had no way of knowing how powerful it would be.

The two other marines reacted first, littering the creature with bullets that did little but bounce of its chitin shell. It surged forward, kicking one marine in the chest with a spear like leg that glowed red hot at the end and partially seared her armor. She fell to the ground, and it moved the mass of its body over her, readying to bring the pincers at its mouth down around her neck. I hit it with a blast of force instead.

"Forzare." I shouted, having first closed the Way to prevent further guests. If it'd hadn't been for my poor aim, the marine might have died right then. My shot hit low on the creature's body, deflecting off of its armor plate without displacing it an inch. Definitely magical. Luckily I'd partially clipped the girl's armor, and small bit that had caught her had been sufficient to violently roll her out of the pincer's path.

The creature turned to me with annoyance and let out a searing concentrated lance of flame from its mouth. Acting solely on instinct, I felt frost surge from my fingertips as the Winter Mantle rushed to my aid, steam filling the surrounding air. Still calling on the reserves of my strength to keep back the flames, I tried to assess my opponent. The power of the current onslaught was not trivial. Equal to perhaps to a burst of flames from one of the greater Sidhe or even the Summer Lady. But while this thing appeared to represent a grotesque but substantial sliver of Eden Prime's power, it also seemed to lack the sophistication of more familiar opponents in the Nevernever. It was wild and animalistic. Which made sense given the lack of intelligent presence on Eden Prime for 50,000 years.

The flames ceased as the creature decided to explore a more physical approach instead. I'd tried direct magic, so instead drew my sword and fortified myself with magic. The mass of sleek black armor and legs reached me moments later, and with my first blow, I sliced off a leg near the base, lava gushing out of the wound were there should have been blood. But as I dodged the moving body and brought my sword back around for a blow to the head, I found it met instead by another arm, glowing protectively with the same green energy that had surrounded the beacon, and blocking my strike. I reeled back as the sword vibrated with the unexpected force of the blow, narrowly avoiding a glowing leg to the head, but taking a blow from another to the chest.

I landed several yards away with a bounce, as if on an inflated children's castle. Had to reinforce the enchantment every morning, but good for preventing broken hips.

I was getting tired and angry, and so was my enemy. Frustrated, I unleashed a volley of my best shots, cycling through different mediums to find a weakness. A full size bolt of lightning shot from my staff complete with ozone, but it just discharged down the beast's legs harmlessly. A single 1-inch ball bearing rocketed out of my left hand with the speed of a bullet, but instead of shattering the armor, was deflected. That gave me pause. I'd thought steel would kill this thing as surely as any fairy. But clearly the cold iron rules weren't as universal as I'd thought. I gave earth magic a try next, but I knew it was a long shot on an unfamiliar planet. The ground split to swallow it, but an impatient stamp of it's foot stilled the moving concrete.

I tried to reach for soulfire, but was just to damn broken after the stuff I'd seen that day. There were many things yet to try but I was getting tired, and my head was pounding with the familiar feeling of magical fatigue. I had a feeling what the thing's weakness was though. It had been somewhat obvious all along, I just hadn't liked the answer.

"Distract it!" I shouted frantically to the male marine who had rushed to his comrade's side.

In a testament to his brethren in the service, he turned to the creature and did just that, hitting it with a series of biotic blows and garnering its attention.

I was in luck. I'd heard about biotics. Some kind of technology driven magic from the sound of it that allowed users to manipulate mass effect fields. Mostly just acceleration stuff, but certainly a better distraction than I could have hoped for.

I let my 200 years of practice guide me as I rushed to find my focus. I took a deep breath through my nose, allowing myself to feel the humid air of the planet even as I reached outward with my magic. The sky opened in a downpour as I immersed myself in the repulsive feeling of hydromancy. This was a one trick gig for someone like me. I could do some stuff with water after years of work, but wouldn't be able to pull off any of my other tricks until I'd dried off.

But today it was enough. The creature cried out in agony as drops of water turned to steam against its black armor. The stump on its arm stopped spurting lava altogether and cauterized into a dark stone. I wasn't done though, and as the moisture finished exiting the air around us, I gathered the water off the ground and forced it down the still screaming monster's throat.

Done. It turned to stone for a moment before melting away into a pile of steaming ectoplasm.

I rushed over to the fallen marine. Looked like both squad members would make it. I turned over to the beacon to find Shepard lying on the ground and the beacon broken into pieces. Whatever had happened had finished during the battle. I reached into a pouch in my pocket and spread ointment over my eyes. Still alive, and whatever had entered him seemed to have exited. I probably wouldn't be able to help him at this point though.

The uninjured marine was calling in a gunship, and I put my shoulder into moving him across to the other two.

"Shepard!" The male marine shouted, having finished applying medi-gel to the woman's burn.

"He's ok. Just out cold." I assured him, handing the unconscious soldier over.

"I have no clue what you are or what that thing was, but thank you." The man said earnestly. "We'd never have made it out of here alive without your help."

"Just make it count." I said tiredly. "What we saw today—that ship—the artifact. It all points to a major threat. Something we haven't seen before, and something a lot older than all of us. We're going to need the Alliance and the Citadel to take this seriously, and it will be up to you three to make that happen."

"Sir, our ship is on its way shortly. You should evac with us. Command would appreciate your debrief. I'm not sure they'll believe what I saw if it is just me telling it. And you seemed to be doing more than just regular biotics."

"Got other plans." I replied. I had no intention of getting in some strange spaceship. "But where you headed? It might be worth getting back in touch."

"Understood. Citadel or Arcturus would be my best guess. You have any way we can contact you?"

I reached into my pocket and grabbed a piece of paper.

"Harry Dresden." I said handing it to him. "Wizard for hire. You can find me in Chicago or the yellow pages depending on what you prefer."

"Wizard? Hey…Is that a phone number?" He asked staring at it as the shuttle arrived.

I took that as my cue and departed with swish of my duster. A Wizard has got to be mysterious after all.


	2. Chapter 2

I found the rest of my team waiting for me at the canteen to my relief. It had already been a disastrous enough day as it was. The base was deserted. Looked like the Geth had hit it as well. We made our way back to Edinburgh in silence, though I could tell they were all itching to ask me what had happened. None of us had managed to follow the same route while invisible, and I suspected I'd fallen particularly far off course.

Thankfully they were still young and timid enough to keep their questions to themselves. With the distractions gone, I was having a hard enough time keeping the psychic trauma of the day from catching up with me. I needed some soul healing. The kind best brought on by a couple of pints of Mac's finest and a long nights' sleep. Preferably with an attractive woman. But the beer would do the trick in a pinch.

The Hidden Halls of Edinburgh were about the antithesis of a pizza shop, and it took us a couple of jigs and jogs before we made it to one of the permanent entrances in the Nevernever. At the end of our path, the snowy forest gave way to a circular clearing centered around an earthen mound. Stone slabs formed a massive doorway that resembled a castle gateway or perhaps the entrance of a parking garage depending on who you asked.

Guarding the entrance to the Council's stronghold was the world's best dressed Warden. He'd substituted the traditional Warden cloak for a custom one from Burberry when he'd become a regional commander, and had on a suit underneath that probably cost more than my first house. Chandler was about my age, and looked to be around sixty or so. Some lines on his face, and grey hair, but every bit as dignified and stuck up as ever. He'd added a beard though, and I'm pretty sure he was hoping to turn into a clone of the Merlin in another century or so.

"Gatekeeper." He said respectfully.

"Easy Steed. You've known me too long for this kind of shit." I replied, continuing an old argument.

"And as ever, it is my duty and privilege to exhibit the highest forms of propriety having been graced with both better pedagogy and a superior homeland." He said, affecting his most obnoxious British accent.

"Steed." I said quietly, glancing pointedly at the tired group of Wardens behind me.

"Oh shit." His face sobered as he noticed that five had become four.

I led the group down the half-mile entrance tunnel as quickly as possible, the privilege of my purple scarf letting us skip the additional checkpoints along the way. We made a beeline for the Warden's barracks, and I took the group into the panic room as soon as we got there.

They collapsed into the leather arm chairs and couches around the room, both the oldest and youngest alike. Mungoshi, the Zimbabwean seventy-year veteran, was staring silently at the small engraved names that adorned the Warden's sanctuary in the Council Headquarters.

The youngest, Rutkowski, only thirty something, was still staring at her feet. She'd almost joined them today on the wall, and unlike me at that age, this was still pretty much her first time experiencing that reality.

I had shit to do. I mean for godsake. Apparently the universe had a giant zombie monster in it that exterminated civilizations. But some things were important to do, regardless, so I poured each of them a drink and tried not to look terrified.

"I want you all to know that what happened today was my fault." I said, looking at them seriously. "This isn't the first time most of us have lost a friend in the field, but I don't want any of you blaming yourself when this one was on me. But we will be better next time—take these Geth more seriously."

They nodded and looked up a little straighter. But those sorts of words never helped much. That didn't mean it wasn't important to say them though.

"To Nicole Laberine." I said simply, draining the glass. I didn't know her well enough to eulogize. She'd only been a Warden for a decade.

I left them to process the loss of their team member alone. It's sick how easy it is to walk past death when you reach my age. But then, that was all living a long time was really. Just keeping a few steps ahead. I'd seen Murph die, Michael, hell I'd even spoken at Charity's funeral. But a good number of their grandkids were dead too at this point. And one day, thinking about that just didn't make me cry anymore.

I'd left my quarters in the Senior Council chamber's exactly as Ebenezer had left them. Books and journals filled the walls, scrolls on magic ten times my age mixed with the latest popular fiction. The old man had finally gone out while working on his farm in the Ozarks. About the best end a Wizard like him could have asked for. Old as hell and doing what he loved.

That had been about nine years ago, and I'd just been elected into Rashid's spot. The Gatekeeper had finished things up in a more spectacular way. The expansion of the mortal world into a galactic community had changed the game, and the best way to describe it would be to say that the Outer Gate was stretched to accommodate a much larger reality than before. Unfortunately, Mab's power didn't stretch as quickly. This all came to a head when someone finally got around to summoning an Outsider, and the now weaker floodgate broke.

I'd been there too, leading Mab's army against the largest horde we'd ever seen at the gates. But it had been the Gatekeeper whose death curse had broken their offense, and he'd banished all four Walkers with a single spell, reinforcing the Gate's wards with his final breath.

I think the Council figured, Winter Knight or not, they needed someone crazy scary and who got along well with Mab to fill the post. Anastasia might have pushed for me as well. She'd taken over about a century ago when Ancient Mai died. What was less well known is that she'd also inherited the Blackstaff from Ebenezer at about the same time. At this point, she was mentally one of the oldest living Wizards, but like me only really starting to get into her groove magically with her new body at around 200. That made her one dangerous lady.

I dressed quickly suppressing my urge to wear my ratty purple scarf as usual instead of my formal purple stole. But I needed them all to listen today, and I could play the game for a little bit if I had too. I told one of the secretaries to call a Senior Council meeting as soon as I got in, so I made my way through the Ostentatiatory towards the meeting chambers. You could tell the part of the room I used because it had a half empty pizza box and well worn yoda mug sitting on the crystal table.

Luccio was already there as was the Merlin. While he'd once looked like Gandalf, Arthur Langtry now looked a great deal more like Bilbo Baggins when he boarded the Grey Ship. Old, decrepit, and shrunken. His beard was patchy, his head balding, but his mind and magic were still sharp for now. Luccio had aged well. Very well. Her second body had been an attractive one to start with, but she'd manage to hold herself together better than I had as well. Her hair was steel colored, but she looked to be a particularly well kept fifty rather than close to four times that.

"Gatekeeper." The Merlin wheezed.

"Harry." Anastasia greeted instead.

"Is this everyone who's here?" I asked. If so, the Merlin would hold their votes which would make placating him more challenging than usual.

"You can't expect us all to show up whenever you command, Wizard Dresden." The Merlin said scathingly. "I know this is still new to you."

"Fine, let's get started. You can fill them in yourself later." I said, not letting myself get frustrated. "The mission to Eden Prime—the source of the psychic disturbance was worse than—"

I shuddered as the memory of the burning plains of corpses and haunting, floating beast came back to me, just as fresh as ever.

"That bad?" Luccio asked.

"Worse." I replied. "Much, much worse."

"Surely you must be overreacting to a fresh memory." The Merlin said.

"I saw the genocide of an entire civilization. It stained the planet everywhere I looked. And what is worse, I have reason to believe that we would find the same thing on a hundred other worlds."

He still didn't like me, but after a few centuries, he knew I wasn't full of shit. The Merlin's mask of indifference slid away—he must not have been getting enough practice—and worry filled his face.

"The effect? On the Nevernever?" He asked with clipped words.

"Totally bat-shit crazy." I said solemnly. "The magnitude of the event was substantial enough to effect fairy personifications of things like winter and summer and twist them into creatures we've never seen before. These planets are going to be dangerous places for practitioners."

"But we've seen similar things in Germany and elsewhere, albeit at lower scales." The Merlin stated. "I take it there is something else as well?"

"I saw the thing that did it. Imagine the wrongness of an Outsider but with the clear presence of a mortal. Now imagine that it was molded out of millions of souls." I said, struggling to fully capture what I had seen. "I soul-gazed a colonist it had corrupted, and even the echo of the creature was enough to shake me. Not to mention the fact that its physical manifestation is a couple kilometer dreadnaught."

"Oddio." Luccio breathed.

"No Warden's sword or blasting rod will slay such a creature." The Merlin surmised, brow furrowing. "Even a curse channeled along a perfect medium would likely be beyond the combined ability of the Council."

"There is really only one option." I said.

"Mortals." Luccio determined, nodding.

"Indeed. I think the right seeds have already been planted with the Alliance team I encountered. But I plan to head to the Citadel as soon as possible. We need to learn more about this enemy. And we need to ensure we aren't facing it alone."

"But what makes you believe this threat is eminent?" The Merlin asked finally. "Surely if it is as old as you say it would have already attacked."

"I don't know." I said honestly. "But I do know that the thing I Saw was physically there on the planet. It had a small army of mechanical soldiers that it deployed, and it turned the colonists into zombie-like creatures."

"Perhaps this is the proof you need to understand why we are not ready to be traipsing around the Galaxy." The Merlin replied, finally showing some of his old self.

"We all know that isn't an option." Luccio cut in. "More than half the species no longer lives on Earth. The majority of new practitioners won't be born here anymore. And from what Harry has recounted, they will face plenty of arcane threats on these new worlds."

"I'm heading to the Citadel immediately, but I want the Council working from this end as well. We need to be ready for a fight, and we need to pursue this threat in the Nevernever as well." I said. I hadn't taken a particularly assertive role in Council politics the last few years, but if there was ever a time, it was now.

"Fine." The Merlin said quietly. "I won't try to stop you. Go deal with these mortals if you must, Dresden. I will use what resources I have in the Nevernever to help you where I can." He limped out of the room, leaning heavily on his white staff.

He left Anastasia and I alone in the room in silence.

"I should get going. Start this case." I said finally.

"The world might be about to end again and you refer to it as a case." She said wryly. "Go to the Citadel. Find out what you can. I'll take care of things here. We'll have Carlos ready with a contingent as soon as we can muster the Wardens. Find us an angle of attack. Or defense, or something."

I nodded, trying to think of the right thing to say. We'd once had a…memorable… relationship a couple decades ago, and now were at an awkward stage of trying to communicate rationally with things like words, but being much too close for emotion not to take over sometimes. Luccio was 200 years older than me though, so I figured it was her job to say anything if something needed to be said. Don't judge me.

I turned to leave.

"Harry." She said, stopping me at the door. "You are the only friend I have left you know."

It was a brutally honest truth; the kind that you normally only hear from children. I felt my less important feelings burn away as I acknowledged it. Wizards live a long time. But not all Wizards, or really even most of us. You'd like to think you get stronger every year, but loneliness hurts just as much at my age as at any other. There were probably only five or six Wizards still around that had been alive when Luccio had been an apprentice. And she had perhaps another couple hundred years left on the clock.

She gave me the sort of stern look I remembered from when she'd been the Captain of the Wardens. "Don't do anything stupid."

XXXXXX

It didn't take me long to get to my apartment.

Chicago has changed a lot, but I haven't really. I've got money now though, thanks to a very successful pizza chain. Like most old people with lots of money, I use it to make the world a little bit more like I remember it. My own little island of curmudgeonism.

My apartment is under the flagship store. I'm sure the employees think I'm a creepy old man. They don't know the half of it. It's got a couple levels of comfortable stone construction. Gas lamps, working kitchen appliances, running water. And most importantly, an expansive underground lab.

I headed down the final staircase to collect a better set of working equipment. I couldn't count on finding anything of interest on the Citadel after all. My best piece of enchanting to date dominated the room. A giant floating globe made out of dirt, water, rock, and moss rotated slowly, one side illuminated by a bright ball of light. It had taken me decades, but I'd replaced Little Chicago in the end.

But that wouldn't be much help off world, so I moved across the room to where an old carved scull sat perched on a stand, and filled Bob in on what had happened during the mission. Bob was a spirit of intellect, much like my daughter Bonnie, and he had a collection of magical knowledge several times greater than any mortal could accumulate in a single lifetime. He didn't, however, have the knowledge of a Fallen angel which I suspected might be helpful in this case. Bonnie and my Wizard daughter Maggie had insisted on running off together on whatever adventure they had moved on to at this point.

"So basically, you've discovered a billion-year-old spaceship-monster that likes to wipe the galaxy of intelligent life?" Bob summarized.

"Sure."

"Harry, you've got to let me out of this skull! I haven't made it to Thessia yet!" Bob said frantically. "Think about it! A planet that is nothing but beautiful women. You should come too! You'd be like a 20-year-old by Asari standards. And they culturally have a phase where they all go try to have sex with as many aliens as possible!"

"Bob." I said hardly. "Focus. I need you're help on this. We figure this out, and I'll give you a month off on Thessia or any planet of your choice."

"Wow." Bob whistled. "You really are serious."

"What does it mean for a being to be made out of the bodies and souls of mortals? Would it be one of the Fey, or mortal itself?"

"You said you saw it in a soul gaze." Bob said somberly. "You don't see Fey in soul gazes."

"It wasn't with the actual dreadnaught though." I argued.

"But if the dreadnaught is a being made out of a collection of people, then a human could be part of it without being physically inside it's body. I don't think you saw all of its soul. But the echo you saw was almost certainly a part of it."

That was just plain disturbing. It was bad enough to consider something taking millions of beings and putting them into a meat grinder to make a monster. But it was worse to think that the same thing could be done to make a soul.

"What does this mean for its presence in the Nevernever?" I asked.

"Well, think of it this way," Bob said, orange eyes flickering with thought. "Take Molly as an example. She is a mortal. But she is a fairy too. The fairy part surrounds the mortal part and augments her presence in the Nevernever with power. So since she is enclosed by the Mantle, she can't do normal mortal stuff like lie. And if you look at Mab, her mortal part has gotten pretty much withered away in there. But the creature your describing, it will have a massive presence in the Nevernever. But it will be all mortal, without any fairy. Completely unencumbered."

"Fuck," I breathed quietly.

"Yeah, this is bad. You'd better hope it doesn't know how to cast magic, or we are all pretty much dead." Bob said matter-of-factly.

"Help me find some gear. We're heading to the Citadel." I said, letting Bob illuminate boxes and drawers around the room that needed to be packed. We worked quickly, but it was still a half hour before I'd crammed everything I could into a roller duffle. I'm told they have mass effect crates now that float, but I'd stick with good old fashion wheels.

I made my way out of my apartment, and into the back of the shop. It was 3 am local time, and I stopped for a second, noticing a young man sitting in one of the booths, eating a slice of pizza. I had bigger problems than someone sitting in my restaurant after hours, but I had a funny feeling I knew exactly who was there. I dropped the suitcase and walked over.

"Uriel."

"Harry." He said warmly, turning to greet me. "It is good to see you again."

"I've gained some self-control," I said, mustering a great deal of it. "but I'm going to need a lot of explaining tonight."

"Relax." He replied, gesturing to the seat in front of him. I took it, and found it to be strangely warm as if I'd already been sitting there a while.

"What did I see today." I said simply. Sometimes the simple question was worth a try.

"That isn't the question you really want to ask me." Uriel said, looking straight at me with inhuman but not unkind eyes.

"Fine. How can you explain what we've been told about your boss and the fucked up universe we live in where floating monster's devour civilizations?" I said. If he didn't want me to bottle my frustration, I wouldn't waste the effort.

"Closer." Uriel said. "But I think what you are really asking is where does humanity fit into things. You've always known there were evils in this world. And what you saw today does not change that. But it does make you question destiny. Is humanity special? When countless other species have succumbed to a threat so ancient and so hidden you only just learned of it."

"The Fallen claim to have been around when everything was created, but it just doesn't make sense if the universe is as _big_ as it seems to be that they'd have all ended up here. Why would they all be on earth? Why would you be on Earth?"

"Harry, I once told you that I could destroy galaxies with my thoughts. Such is the power of my position." He finished his pizza, whipping grease from his face primly. "You ask the right question, and the simple answer is that I am not just on Earth. My work is everywhere."

"So we just happen to live in the galaxy with the murderous old monster?" I asked, not hiding any of my frustration.

"Effectively? Yes." He said. "But you wish to know why. My master created a universe with possibility. He gave you many ways to know him. And he gave the same gifts of freedom to all his children. The monster you speak of was created by his children, and though it kills his children, he has indeed not stopped it. For the price of such an action would be far worse. It would require him to kill everyone."

"How could you possibly arrive at that conclusion." I said incredulously?

"If the rules were changed, possibility would be extinguished. You assume of course that this being was created out of malice. I assure you, that was not the case. It was created misguidedly, but with good intentions."

"Good intentions that led to hell." I replied, not buying Mr. Sunshine's argument.

"Indeed. But if good intentions pave the road to hell, they must just as surely pave the sole road out. For Christ himself entered into hell, and for the noblest of intentions, and rising up again on the third day set the example for all who would follow."

"Cut the Christian crap." I said angrily.

Uriel frowned.

"I have no desire to regal you with religious rhetoric." He said shortly. "I simply am saying that the possibility to do good predicates the possibility to do bad. There could be no ethics in a determined universe."

"That's all well and good but what about the trillions of dead? The trillions that might yet die!" I shouted.

Uriel stood up, and his face seemed to grow both harder set and brighter somehow as he did so.

"I came to tell you that this is an enemy you can defeat. Look around you on your travels. Your people have been given a gift to aid you in this battle that has not been given before, in this world or in countless others. The price was high, and the sacrifice was not made in vain. Have faith."

A look of compassion spread across his face.

"You are of course correct. Quadrillions have died to be more precise. But I leave you with a parting thought: Why should the nature of Death ever be aloud to define the meaning of Life?"

And he was gone.

XXXXX

I arrived on the Citadel frustrated and tired. I'd done some travels off planet, but never to the galactic hub. I stepped out of the restaurant bathroom, ignoring the confused looks of the clientele, and made my way into the corridor outside.

Despite having spent most of my life in a metro setting, it was a claustrophobic feeling for me walking through the space station corridors rather than an open air city street. I'd assumed that in a place full of many civilizations and cultures, an old man with a fancy walking stick and large roller bag wouldn't draw too much attention. That had apparently been incorrect. People just don't carry walking sticks in space apparently. Unless your Yoda. Or the Emperor. Or Harry Dresden. Bahh. I was in good company.

An orange glow appeared down my forearm as Bob moved out of my duster. I'd let him out of the skull to serve as my omnitool which conveniently glowed orange and looked rather magical as well. Bob was basically a computer, and was very adept at performing the role, though much more insubordinate than most machines.

I waved my arm limply in front of a glowing hologram that looked like an Asari. The gesture looked mostly like what everyone with the omnitools was doing. Bob meanwhile got to work compiling information about the space station, and finding me a good home base.

"Ok Harry! I've found you the perfect place." He said loudly, causing heads to turn.

"Bob. I don't think omnitools normally talk." I whispered, trying to move away from the crowded part of the hallway around the welcome hologram.

"Oh. Right." He wrote out a few inches above my arm. "Anyway, I know how you like cheap hotels. Found the perfect place in this ward. It's called Afterlife. Best room rate in town."

I was suspicious. Who would call a hotel Afterlife?

"Its only…436 steps away." Bob stated.

That got me moving. I was good with any hotel as long as it was close. I made my way to one of the many elevators, and hurtled down some seventy decks or so. I could hear the music playing the second I exited.

"Bob! This isn't a hotel. It's a nightclub." I hissed.

My arm glowed orange and the door to the lift locked behind me.

"Come on Harry! It's a good hideout location. Who would look for you here?"

I gave up pushing the up button on the elevator after a few tries and made my way over to the entrance grudgingly.

"Name?" The bouncer asked, eyes locked on his omnitool.

"Harry Dresden."

"The VIP suite is ready for you Mr. Dresden. A staff member will be down any minute to show you to your room. In the meantime, you are welcome to a complimentary cocktail in our lounge."

I had words to say to Bob, but they would have to wait due to the crowd. This was definitely not looking like the cheapest motel around. I could use the drink though.

I walked into the lounge off of the entrance corridor, vision assaulted by flashing lights in the dim room, and loud house music. There were a few upper crust looking elites of different races sitting around tables in the room, several dancers, Asari it looked like, scantly clad and twerking about above the bar, and of course my brother, sitting with two Asari dressed exactly like the dancers, and looking just as young as ever.

"Thomas?" I said incredulously. We stayed in touch, but it had been a while and I'd not realized he'd ever been off planet.

"Harry?" He said standing up, a smile on his face. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same," I replied, giving him a hug. "I let Bob do my hotel reservation."

"You realize that Afterlife doesn't sell hotel rooms, don't you?" Thomas said laughing.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It does however have the best brothel on the Citadel associated with it."

"God damn it Bob!"

"All purchases are final." Flashed across my wrist. "I figured you could use the room, and I could use the other services."

I'd deal with that latter.

"Thomas, listen, I'm actually here on a case. Something really important. Is there somewhere we could talk?"

"I'm renting an apartment in the Presidium for the month. We can go there." He said, waving goodbye to the disappointed dancers.

The Presidium turned out to be the giant ring that held the flower petals of the station together. Or so I surmised from our shuttle ride over. It was a nerve raking experience, being inside a tiny death trap in pure vacuum. Real spaceships just didn't have the awesomeness that science fiction told me they ought to. And while magic didn't seem to hex mass effect technology really, old habits were hard to break, and the outcomes if something _did_ go wrong were death, death and more death.

Thomas handed me one of Mac's unmarked brown bottles when we got to his apartment. I still don't know who he is, but I'm glad he is around brewing beer—and that Thomas is rich and spoiled enough to import unmarked alcoholic drinks into space.

"What's up?" Thomas asked, crashing into a large leather couch that sat in front of an impressive view of the nebula.

"Short synopsis: ancient zombie monster wants to kill civilization. Has been doing it periodically for a couple hundred million years potentially." I said seriously.

I don't think that was what he had expected.

"Ancient …zombie monster?" He repeated slowly.

"Well, might be better described as a couple mile long cuttlefish shaped super-dreadnaught with an army of Geth soldiers onboard." I clarified.

"How could one ship exterminate a species?" Thomas asked.

That was a good question. And one I didn't have any answer to. Perhaps it simply controlled an army of soldiers to do the job for it. I'd felt its presence on Eden Prime, attempting to wrestle control of my brain. But how it managed to go up against what were presumably fleets of enemy ships was still a question. And if it was truly powerful enough physically to take on a civilization by itself, why had it fled at my spell, powerful enough in its own right that it might have been.

"Not sure yet. But I know that whatever it is, we'll need mortals on board to help fight this thing. That's where I could use your help."

Thomas smiled.

"I am after all, much more socially competent and good looking."

That had been true even when we'd both looked 30. Now, it just was adding insult to injury.

"I met a team of Alliance Marines when I encountered this being on Eden Prime. We need to make sure they get the ball moving on the mortal side of things. And we need to find out more about the extermination of the Protheans." I said grimly.

"Let's get to work."


End file.
